Ties That Bind makes few changes to the formula, stretches a thin story to somewhere near the breaking point, and delivers a bloody, curse-filled action game that might still please fans of the first game, though it's more likely that you'll feel like you played the same game last year.

Although the horror element here suffers from one-trick-pony-itis, I was, over time, compelled enough by the story to keep going-not just because I had to, but because I was kinda interested to see how things turned out.

After the interesting and confident debut of The Suffering last year, Ties That Bind remains a straightforward action game, and one with a coherent story that feels well paced, if too full of schlocky cliché for some. But that is, ultimately, all it does: remains. [Dec 2005, p.106]

The Suffering: Ties That Bind is a psychological horror video game, developed by Surreal Software and published by Midway Games.Ties That BindThe Suffering: Ties That Bind is a psychological horror video game, developed by Surreal Software and published by Midway Games.Ties That Bind features a number of gameplay changes from the original The Suffering. The player can no longer carry around xombium bottles to refill their health whenever they need to, and instead must rely on stationary pickups located throughout the level. When critically injured, the player may also heal a very small percentage of their health by hiding from the immediate battle to recover. The player is also now limited to only carrying two weapons at a time, which now adds a sense of strategy to the gameplay.…Full Review »

SimonB

Jun 23, 2008

6

You have an aging PC? You like recent games that work on it? The Suffering: Ties that Bind is -NOT- for you. This game I thought would be You have an aging PC? You like recent games that work on it? The Suffering: Ties that Bind is -NOT- for you. This game I thought would be something along the lines of a F.E.A.R crossed with Painkiller. It turned out to be just that and sometimes less. I liked the whole hallucination thing and it often gave me jumps. After a while though, you get through the routine and nothing really gets to you anymore. The monsters are the greatest in design that I've ever seen. The description behind them is awesome too. However, as far as gameplay goes, Suffering is CRIPPLED. I understand the whole concept of having random ammo crates and shit lying about but... I don't see the point in putting them right in the player's way if the weapons used won't even have a fill up until at least later in the game. Unless you've played through, you're always going to be struggling to know which weapons the creators wanted you to use. The whole "good/bad" gauge was also pretty useless. Lots of the NPCs you want to save are often obnoxious and unless you've played through, you won't get the hint you're supposed to save them. If you do kill them well, you're one step closer to getting a bad ending. Oh yeah I should mention that most weapons, including the melee weapons, are very useless against most enemies. The ones you want to kill the fastest are usually those that attack you from range, 'cause the A.I. is so dumb, it might as well be scripted to kill itself because of its HORRIBLE pathfinding. Monsters are scary, yes. Dumb Monsters are not. When a game like Suffering lets you abuse Monsters' A.I. , it just removes the whole horror concept. When you're supposed to be scared and every Monster ends up being killed by the dozen at some point in the game... I don't know, this isn't a Resident Evil 4 and this isn't a Painkiller, because your character is bloody vulnerable at every moment. As far as storyline goes... This game is believable at some points... But most of the time, the dialogue is just wack. The afro-american girl in this game moves her head around like it's all those girls do anyways when they talk. At least they had the decency of giving the Main Character a decent sidekick... Not. He also gets the "typical black man" card. Whereas he's a bloody coward and just keeps running all the time, telling you to kill people for him. Oh and there's the main antagonist, who might as well have shoved the microphone in his throat by how rhaspy he sounds. None of the characters are memorable, including the Main Protagonist who looks and acts like an aging Logan from X-Men, minus the style. Try it but you'll be dissapointed, unless you're into jacking off to galons of blood.…Full Review »

StevenZ.

Apr 21, 2007

9

I really liked the first one, and I am really enjoying this one as well, unfortunately I encountered a dead-end bug and haven't finished I really liked the first one, and I am really enjoying this one as well, unfortunately I encountered a dead-end bug and haven't finished the game yet, but this isn't discouraging me to find a way through and finish. Whoever played and enjoyed the first one as much as I did, will like this one just as much, though for PC it is quite glitchy.…Full Review »